The campaign for offshore wind power in Virginia has launched into the fall season full-steam, and with a backdrop of beautiful weather and some highly contested elections in Hampton Roads, our volunteers got out there and made a big splash over the last few weeks!
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Hundreds Gather for "Wind Works" Town Halls
Few if any issues are as important to the future health, economic sustainability and quality of life of communities around the world than climate change and clean energy. And as we’ve seen at two separate town hall events in Prince George’s County and Montgomery County these past two weeks, Marylanders know it.
Encircling the White House — A New Beginning is Here
Lo and behold, at 5:15 pm, as the light was rapidly fading and a beautiful ¾ moon appeared in the sky over Lafayette Park, as Bill McKibben was wrapping up, speaking about the wonder and power of the day’s event and this movement, a motorcade appeared at the top of Lafayette Park. Someone pretty reliable said, “It’s President Obama!,” and Bill proceeded to lead the thousands of people still there in a chant of, “Yes We Can Stop the Pipeline” as hundreds streamed toward the cars with their flashing red lights. If, indeed, it was Obama in that motorcade, there is no way he didn’t hear us.
This was just one of many amazing things that happened yesterday.
Everyone and their mother will be at this rally on Sunday!
That’s right. Even my mother (and father) is coming to the tar sands rally this Sunday. They left this morning to start driving all the way from Champaign Illinois! When I asked them why they were coming (other than the obvious desire to spend time with their gorgeous and talented daughter) they talked about how inspired they were by the arrests in August and how they wanted President Obama to do the right thing.
The Power of the People, Organized
On Monday, October 31, speaking about a possible permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, President Obama’s press secretary Jay Carney told the press that “this is a decision that will be made by the State Department.” On Tuesday, November 1, speaking during an interview at the White House with a reporter from Omaha, Nebraska-based TV station KETV, President Obama himself said that he will be making the decision. What has gotten into the President? Are we seeing the reappearance of the person who campaigned in 2008 as a strong proponent of action to “end the tyranny of oil” and address climate change?
November 6: More Than Just the Climate Movement?
November 6 at the White House is a big day and an important place. That afternoon, one year before the 2012 elections, thousands of people from around the country will be doing something that has never been done before. We will be surrounding the White House, a mile or more in circumference, in a Circle of Hope. Many thousands of climate, environmental and environmental justice activists will be there on November 6. What about activists from the broader progressive movement? I know that there will be some from the Occupy movement, which is very important. As a primarily young people’s movement, it is young people, as well as low-income, Indigenous and other people of color, who will be most impacted as our earth gets hotter and hotter. Beyond that I wonder. And I wonder based on seven years of attempting to spread the word about the urgency of the climate crisis and the need for more people to speak up and take action on it NOW. Continue reading
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Obama's Richmond Visit: CCANers say No KXL Pipeline!
Today, President Obama’s bus tour stopped at a fire station south of Richmond, and CCAN was there to remind him that he can stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Our volunteers braved swarming crowds, traffic, police tape, and inclement weather to make sure he got our message.
As the bus drove by us, we saw the President looking out the many signs in the crowd, and I’m excited to report that he and his staff saw our banner! The banner we used has been traveling the country helping local organizers to hold the President accountable on today’s most important climate issue, and is now on its way to Cleveland for a midwest tar sands action! Richmond CCANers are proud of our solidarity with tar sands activists around the country.
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U.S. Energy Policy is Reversing 50 Years of Peace Corps Progress
The U.S. Peace Corps marked its 50th anniversary in late September with festivities all across the nation’s capital. Former employees like Bill Moyers and Chris Matthews hosted elegant parties as the storied agency took a celebratory bow.
And with good reason. Founded by John F. Kennedy in the idealistic sixties, the Peace Corps has lived on to send more than 200,000 Americans overseas to help feed, clothe, and better educate the poorest of the poor in 139 countries.
But as a former Peace Corps volunteer myself, having lived in a mud-hut village for two years in the Congo, I find it hard to celebrate right now. That’s because our current charismatic and youthful president – Barack Obama – is threatening to undo much of the good work achieved by the Peace Corps over the past half century.
It’s not widely appreciated, but here’s the undeniable fact: Energy policies embraced by the Obama White House are bringing direct harm to every poor village on the face of the planet, from the highlands of Papua New Guinea to the rainforests of South America to the arid plains of Obama’s own ancestral Kenya. And the biggest threat of all is yet to come. It’s an international “tar sands oil pipeline” from Canada to America which, if approved by the Obama Administration, will affect all nations, but especially the impoverished of the world.